On Friday morning I flew to Istanbul for a whistle-stop whirling dervish of a weekend.

Some of you know that in December 2014 I went to Bali and participated in a coaching and personal development retreat led by Mastin Kipp called ‘Enter the Heart’ – what you might not know is that I kinda thought I’d signed up for a different retreat.

Whilst the content of the 10 day immersion was incredible, there wasn’t much content I wasn’t fully familiar with already – I thought I had signed up for a retreat about relationships (an area I am still keen to learn and experience more of) and we covered just 4 hours of that content.

However, that retreat was probably the most important retreat experience I have ever had.

Signing up to work at a group level with a coach you admire, respect or have an affinity with isn’t always about the coach themselves or their work. Often times it is about the leap of faith you have to take to get there, the financial investment, the other people on the program or the magic that happens when that exact group of people get together.

So, why am I sharing all of this and what has it got to do with my weekend or Istanbul?

The 28 women on that retreat have become my soul sisters and whilst we are all on different journeys and our paths and placement in the world hugely disparate we are soul family and the lessons I have learned from these women in the last 14 months worth every penny I spent on that trip.

This weekend I spent 42 hours with my friend chatting, walking, taking photos, learning, connecting, digesting, exploring and partying. It also reminded me of my WHY. The WHY I do what I do – so that I can have a real, authentic sense of belonging anywhere in the world at any moment. So that I can experience freedom, and adventure and so that I can enable others to do so too.

I learned or was reminded of 5 really important things this weekend and they were this:

Friendship and connection can span continents and timezones, can mostly be maintained on facebook or whatsapp but hanging out in person and creating a business that allows you to have time and location freedom is incredible! If it’s possible for me it’s possible for you too!

When you have purple hair you stand out anywhere in the world, but particularly in a muslim country full of dark haired people. That said, my judgement and unconscious prejudices were turned on their heads by the amount of youth culture and vibrant modernity and progression Istanbul demonstrates. Its one of the most incredible places I have ever been and I will be going back for sure!

What we are shown by the media isn’t a true snapshot or an accurate depiction of what is going on. This is true of all areas of life, not limited to photoshopped pictures in magazines and cropped out filtered Instagram – it is more important than ever for you to be the change in the world by showing up authentically and in our truths – the way we do anything is the way we do everything and the actions of individuals matters. One person saying it is safe to travel, one person talking about mental health issues, one person asking for a fair wage, one person saying yes when they mean yes and no when they mean no is SO IMPORTANT.

I need more time off – I have learned that while I love creating free content for you, and whilst I love working with my clients both in group and one to one, I need to create more time in my life to travel and be creative. I am planning on rejigging the way I work and I would love it if you could fill out this short questionnaire to help me work out how to best serve value to you.

It is so important to fill ourselves up first and foremost so that we are overflowing with vitality and can help and enable others, when we give from a brimming cup there is so much more to give!

with an open and giving heart I am so incredibly grateful for you thank you for being one of my tribe!

so much love,

until next week, stay wild, stay true!

Do you find Mondays a little hard?Could you do with a little Pep Talk?